Actually, I don't think the "self-installing" product makes a damn bit of difference to the bottom line (but I still like Westell!).
In order to get DSL, the following things have to be done:
Somewhere in some office, PacBell (or whomever) has to provision (that's their term) your line for DSL. That means hook up whatever it is that ultimately talks to your DSL modem.
Then, a technician has to come to your house where the phone line comes in (say in the basement of your house/apartment). From there, they actually attach a splitter which takes the low frequency part of the bandwidth and routes it into one line (used for your phone) and routes the rest of the bandwidth to the second line (which is used for your DSL modem). {It's call a "POTS splitter", where "POTS" stands for Plain Old Telephone Service} Most people have two twisted pair lines going into their home, so as long as you don't have two phone lines already, they can use the second line to bring in the DSL. Otherwise, they can do the splitting inside your house with some additional effort.
Finally, they have to come into your house and route the second line to whatever outlet you are going to use for your modem (leaving the original line connected to the rest of your lines so you still have normal phone service).
When the PacBell guy came to my house (third appointment, grrrrrr), I actually told him I would install the network card and software myself while he was screwing around downstairs with the POTS splitter (I got an external Westell WireSpeed DSL modem). It wasn't difficult, and I was done before he finished his job downstairs.
I can only assume that this "easy" setup means that you install a PC card which already has the modem on it, and then take the DSL line from your wall and plug it right in to the card. Then, if your "plug and play" card is recognized by the OS, it takes care of the installation (which happens with the network card anyway). The last step is setting up the account with the ISP, but that's not terribly difficult either.
All in all, this last part (with the modem and software) is the shortest and easiest, so I have a hard time seeing a dramatic overall installation rate due to better software. You still need a technician to do the wiring, along with the appropriate testing equipment to verify everything is good along the way.
Regards,
Steve
(I still like Westell, though -- my modem rocks) |
